


When It Gets Dark Outside (In You I Confide)

by Jacketarearmpants



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Post-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:33:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24032071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacketarearmpants/pseuds/Jacketarearmpants
Summary: When Mike visits El over spring break, he finds out she isn't as happy as he thought.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 15
Kudos: 41





	When It Gets Dark Outside (In You I Confide)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well during this tough time.
> 
> Shoutout to my beta @leetheshark.
> 
> Title is from "Hide" by Juice Wrld

“You sure look excited,” Nancy says, glancing over from behind the wheel at Mike. They’re nearing the halfway point of their spring break road trip to go see the Byers. If this were any other time, the car would be full with arguments and various noises of the other members of The Party, but instead it’s just the Wheeler siblings. Everyone else has other plans: Lucas and Erica are in Disney World, Dustin and his mom are visiting family in New Jersey, and Max is staying home in Hawkins to help her family. 

“Well, I did see her around Christmas, but this is different.” Mike smiles. “Everyone was there, but now it's just me and her.”

“Tell me about it,” Nancy adds. “You’re lucky I’m nice enough to drive you.”

“Hey!” Mike teases back. “I know the only reason why you're driving me is because you get to see Jonathan.”

“You're not wrong.” Nancy giggles as she adjusts the volume on the radio, the sounds of Madonna filling the car.

Mike smirks before looking out the window. After seeing El over Christmas, they made plans to meet up again and, luckily, a perfect opportunity presented itself. Mike's spring break, a week and a half of no responsibility and not a care in the world, lined up exactly with El’s and Will’s own break. A quick call to Ms. Byers and with Nancy by his side, it didn't take long for them to convince their parents to let them drive to see the Byers again. Mike has been planning the perfect break during his nightly radio calls with El. They're going to go to an arcade near her house, maybe go see a movie, maybe watch the stars, but most of all, they’re just going to be together with no interruptions from friends or parents. Just El and Mike.

“So, how’s Will doing?” Nancy asks, pulling Mike’s attention back into the car. In addition to talking to El, Mike and the Party talk to Will at least weekly, to make sure he doesn't feel left out of the group. 

“He's doing okay.” Mike smiles gently. “He has his own friends at his new school. Turns out he fits in really well with the art kids.”

“The art kids?” Nancy muses. “Jonathan was the same way in high school, always fitting in with the more offbeat kids.”

“It's okay Nancy, you can call him a nerd.” Mike chuckles. “Erica does constantly.” 

“By the way, I forgot to ask, what's in the bag?” Nancy points her thumb to a duffel bag Mike has in the back. “I know some of it’s clothes and stuff, but what else is in there? I saw you ask Mom to go to Melvald's the other day. You thinking about giving El something?”

Mike blushes. “Yeah,” he stammers. “Since all the Easter candy was on sale, I just wanted to get her some.”

“Aww, that’s cute” Nancy coos. Mike’s puppy dog love for El never ceases to amaze her. “What else is in there, Mike?” 

“Nothing,” Mike shoots back.

“You’d think for a kid that has literally lied to government agents, you would be a much better liar. Are there Eggos in there?”

Mike hesitates before sheepishly answering. “Yeah. I took them from the fridge this morning.”

“I knew it!” Nancy smiles before lightly swatting Mike’s shoulder. “Anyway, we've barely just hit halfway, so we’re going to be on the road for another couple hours. Just take a nap. I'll wake you up when we get there.”

“Yeah, okay.” Mike gently rests his head against the window, allowing the soothing vibrations of the car and his dancing thoughts of El to put him to sleep.  


* * *

  
“Hi, guys!” Joyce's comforting smile greets the two Wheeler siblings as they exit the car and begin to walk up the pathway towards the front door of the new Byers house. “How was the drive over?”

“Long, exhausting, and Nancy wouldn't shut up,” Mike jokes as Joyce meets them halfway up the path for a round of quick but snug hugs.

“Hey!” Nancy begins. “I did let you sleep here for a little bit. Anyway—”

_“Mike!”_ El’s voice suddenly erupts from inside the house as her and Will catapult out the front door and quickly tackle Mike in a tight embrace.

“Nancy!” Jonathan emerges from the house, quickly wrapping his arms around Nancy.

“Easy there.” Joyce lightly swats at El and Will's arms currently crushing Mike. “Let him breathe.” 

Will quickly breaks the embrace, allowing El to hang on just for a little bit longer, and finally Mike is able to fully take in his girlfriend. 

_Wow._

She looks just as beautiful as she did when he visited for Christmas. Her long chestnut hair has grown down to the middle of her back. Her hug has new strength, courtesy of the dance classes she has been taking at school. However, when Mike gets to her face, something is off. Normally, when he looks into her eyes, there's a twinkle of something more, a spark of joy. Her smiles tend to be easy, almost effortless. But in this moment, her face carries a hidden mask of pain. Her eyes are narrow with heavy bags, her smile feels forced. It looks like she's genuinely happy to see him, but she's just a second away from cracking.

“Hi,” Mike whispers, before gently placing a kiss on El’s forehead. “I've missed you.”

“I've missed you, too.” El smiles back, her eyes shining. She quickly pulls Mike’s head down and meets his lips with hers. 

They eventually break and simply rest their foreheads on each other’s, each one of them trying to accept the fact that the other one is truly real and in front of them.

“Alright, you two lovebirds,” Nancy interrupts. “Come on and help me with the bags.”

“Okay.” Mike nods before placing one last kiss on El’s forehead. 

“Let's go inside,” El whispers, with her head tilted and with a slight smile.

“I'll just need to grab my stuff first.” Mike smiles down at her. “I'll meet you inside?”

With a nod and a smile, El disappears into the house, leaving Mike by the car. He feels conflicted; he talks to El every night, so he should theoretically know what’s happening—but it's one thing to hear someone's voice every night, and it's another thing to see their face. To see the things that they're showing and the things that they don't want to show. He's asked her about school, homework, and stuff like that, but she isn't the most expressive when it comes to that area. She sometimes shuts down when asked, so he's been avoiding that recently. But the pain in her eyes is still weighing on his mind. Still, he can't ask her directly, as she would just shut him out.  


* * *

  
There's one major drawback to surviving the apocalypse three times over: Mike has grown accustomed to waking up with the sound of crying. Sometimes, he awakes from another night terror as the demogorgon wraps its arms around El and crushes her to death. Sometimes it's Lucas' or Dustin's, their own cries echoing out in the shared trauma. 

Mike quickly takes in his surroundings, and he remembers that he's in El’s room. Joyce is a lot more free than Hopper, so he's allowed to sleep in her room. Her room fits her perfectly with posters of pop stars on the wall, knick-knacks scattered here and there, and—Mike’s favorite—a toaster sitting on her desk. He remembers her little speech about how it’s there so that she can get her Eggos anytime she wants. He reaches over for El, only to find his arms empty of her warmth and the space next to him missing her presence. 

“El?” he asks. “Where are you?”

_She probably went to the bathroom,_ his sleepy mind tries to interject.

“Just go back to bed, Mike,” El’s quiet voice emerges from the darkness.

“El?” Mike sits up and starts to look around. “Is everything okay”

“Everything’s fine,” she whimpers.

When Mike finally finds her, she’s sitting on the bed next to him, head buried in her hands, her body rocking every time a sniffle escapes her.

“El!” Mike reaches out, gently resting his hand against her shoulder.

She suddenly slaps his hand away and turns to face him. Even in the darkness, Mike can see her face. It's twisted with rage and sorrow, her eyes swollen with hot tears tracking down her face as her mouth hangs open with sobs.

“Why are you here?” El pleads. “Why do you like me?”

For a moment, all Mike can do is stare at El, horrified. He finally gathers his thoughts and answers, “Because you're awesome.” 

“No, I'm not,” El responds, a single tear sliding down her face. “I'm nothing.”

“Wh… what?”

“I’m nothing!” El screams. “Watch!”

El throws her shaking hand out toward a can of Coke on her desk. After a few seconds of nothing, she turns back to Mike, fresh tears streaming down her face. “I can't do anything. I have no family. I have no powers. I have nothing, Mike… Nothing.”

“Nothing,” Mike whispers to himself in shock. There are many things El is in this world— _nothing_ is not one of them. From the moment Mike found her in the rain, El has always brought something into his life, and to see her so defeated, and so convinced that she doesn't have an impact on him, stuns him to his very core. 

“Nothing,” El cries back in a voice so small, it threatens to be swallowed by the silence of the night. “No one.” 

As emotions start to bubble up inside of Mike, every single memory of El comes into his mind. The van flip. The monster. The return. The snow ball. The first _I love you._ Mike is silent for a while, but only because he’s trying to find the right words to unlock the fact that she isn't nothing to anyone. “El,” he begins, his voice shaky. “You're wrong.”

El raises her head. “What?”

“You're wrong,” Mike repeats, a new conviction filling him. He pauses to swallow the lump forming in his throat “You're something, El. Something I can't let go of. If you were nothing, I wouldn't have called you for all 353 days. I wouldn't write to you every day. I wouldn't count the seconds till I see you again.” Mike’s voice starts to rise as his mind and emotions begin to move faster than he can manage. “I wouldn't care about you. I wouldn't do anything else for you. When I said I love you, I meant it.” As Mike finishes, tears start to flow freely down his cheeks.

“Mike,” El whispers.

“I love you, El. And that’s the only thing I'm sure of in this world. I have no idea if the monsters and Russians are going to come back. I have no idea if I'm going to be friends with Dustin and Lucas after high school. I have no idea if i'll ever be close with Will again. But the one thing that I know is that I love you.” He stops to rest his hand gently on El’s. Their eyes lock, both of them gleaming with tears. “El, I love you so much. Nothing you say or do and nothing anyone else says or does is going to change that.” With his final declaration of love, Mike's head falls as tears and sobs begin to overcome him. 

“I love you, too,” El says. She jumps forward and wraps her arms around Mike, burying her head into his shoulder. A sorrowful silence fills the room. They spend what feels like an hour just sharing tears and grief, but most importantly sharing love.

“El.” Mike pulls out of the hug to place his forehead against El’s. “Just… just know that to me, you're something.”

El may not be a superhero anymore, but she’s still something. To Mike, she’s everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a kudos or comment, I always enjoy reading them.
> 
> The next chapter of Gifted should be out in the upcoming weeks.


End file.
